Which changes trigger reactivation in a Windows guest?

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
The Nostalgia Master
Posts: 25
Joined: 15. Oct 2020, 03:05
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win 1, 2, 3, 98, ME, NT4 NT5, 200, MS DOS, Tandy Deskmate

Re: Which changes trigger reactivation in a Windows guest?

Post by The Nostalgia Master »

I know these VMs are actually VMware, but the following would apply to VirtualBox as well:

I converted an old af Windows XP laptop into a VM. It asked to be activated within three days. I went to activate Windows online and it worked. For real. That was over a month ago and Windows did not ask to be activated since then.

As for my Windows 7 laptop, it ended up saying "this copy of Windows is not genuine" after a while. Internet activation did not work, (Mod edit: ixnay on the ack-cray uff-stay) I felt kinda bad about having to resort to that.

A few things to note:
- I increased the RAM on my Windows XP VM. Did not trigger reactivation.
- I increased the RAM AND number of cores on my Windows 7 VM. Did not trigger reactivation either.

There are other factors which came into play but I will not mention them here as they are VMware-exclusive. What I noted here is either applicable to Virtualbox or a universal thing with VMs.
Last edited by scottgus1 on 18. Jan 2021, 00:09, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: removed reference to getting around activation
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Which changes trigger reactivation in a Windows guest?

Post by scottgus1 »

Nostalgia, I tweaked some stuff in your post. We don't allow discussion of bypassing licensing terms here, it tends to irritate the licensors' lawyers, and we don't want to rile up the lawyers.

As for the laptop not activating that's probably expected. Laptop OS's are usually OEM licenses which are only supposed to be activated on the original hardware. Some manufacturers even lock the OS to the BIOS so it won't even boot if not on the original hardware.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Which changes trigger reactivation in a Windows guest?

Post by mpack »

I increased the RAM on my Windows XP VM. Did not trigger reactivation.
Amount of installed motherboard RAM definitely counts in the XP scoring system. However different hardware features are weighted differently, so it has never been the case that any change in any hardware feature will instantly result in deactivation. It's likely that a RAM change affected your score, but not enough to cause deactivation. It's equally possible that another minor change in the future will take you over the edge.

There used to be a free tool you could find online that checked how the hardware had changed since activation (*), and how close you are to needing to reactivate. Obviously with the difficulty XP users now report getting activation to work, it's best if you can avoid unnecessary virtual hardware changes after activation. Ideally, get your XP recipe right from the start!

(*) I remember that this tool worked on XP. I don't know if versions are available for other Windows versions.
Rob_ZA
Posts: 3
Joined: 28. Oct 2022, 21:00
Primary OS: MS Windows other
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Linux, Debian, Windows,
Location: ZA

Re: Which changes trigger reactivation in a Windows guest?

Post by Rob_ZA »

Windows XP SP3 (Build 2600.xpsp_sp3_qfe.130704-0421 : Service Pack 3)

Official retail and legit key used when guest was first created way back in the back (2013?).

For me it was uninstalling the VBox Guest Extensions that invoked an activation request. I found a MS phone number for Office Activation that gave me an updated code the OS accepted.

Backup your VMs.
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